Ancestry.co.uk

romany_star

I use Ancestry every day, as I've been tracing my family tree for five years. I need to renew as the 1911 census will be out in Jan 09, BUT I have to pay £85. This seems to have gone up a huge percentage over the last 2 years (was £69). Is there any way to get a lower renewal fee?

Bronnie

romany_star wrote: »

I use Ancestry every day, as I've been tracing my family tree for five years. I need to renew as the 1911 census will be out in Jan 09, BUT I have to pay £85. This seems to have gone up a huge percentage over the last 2 years (was £69). Is there any way to get a lower renewal fee?

If genealogy is considered one's hobby, I don't think £1.63 a week is a huge amount to pay to further research in the comfort of your own home and for the hours of interest that access to Ancestry can provide! I have an annual subscription and I think its well worth the money!

trisontana

romany_star wrote: »

I use Ancestry every day, as I've been tracing my family tree for five years. I need to renew as the 1911 census will be out in Jan 09, BUT I have to pay £85. This seems to have gone up a huge percentage over the last 2 years (was £69). Is there any way to get a lower renewal fee?

The 1911 census data is now out for many English counties via the "Find My Past" website.

SnowMonkey_3

God, I'm furious with these people.

Went to ATM yesterday to withdraw cash for bus fare. Available balance 0.00.

So after I had to walk home, called up and bank said £83.40 Maestro transaction for Ancestry.co.uk.

Yes, I joined as part of a trial period. Logged in at the start of January in order to cancel before this annual fee was taken. Even checked a few days later to make sure my account wasn't on a subscription. Sent them an email last night telling them all this. I've just called them up and they can't find my account! Also, if it's relating to a Maestro payment, I have to call back after 3pm to speak to the Executive Team.

In the meantime, this payment is waiting to debit my account and I have to survive on nothing till I get paid next week. They had better give me this money back. Like most people, I can't afford to lose this kind of money at the start of the year. To make things worse, I'm off work and only receiving statutory sick pay so when I'm paid, a huge chunk of my wages will be eaten up by this con! It's going to make me overdrawn as well, so I'm absolutely livid.

I'll update on how I get on once I've spoken to them. I ain't going to let this go, believe me!

God. So angry.

SailorSam

ShockingPink wrote: »

Not very helpful to JoeBloggs, but...

Cumbria Library Service have signed a licence agreement whereby library members get free acess to the site via the libraries' website. They just need to put their membership no in.

Might be worth checking if your own library service has a similar agreement?

I started a family tree last year, our local library offers free access to Ancestary as well. I live in Knowsley.

fade2gray

lilias wrote: »

linlin wrote: »

I find the biggest problem with Ancestry and other online subscriptions is that you get no warning of an impending renewal - you're expected to remember (which I don't). You could try calling your credit card company and ask them to put an alert on any unsigned subscriptions.

I received notice of impending renewal from them in a very clear email which told me what to do if I did not want to renew and within what timescale.
I didn't stop the renewal because it's a brilliant site with masses of info.

I now this is an old thread now, but I'd just like to air my views on the above quoted.

I first subscribed to ancestry.co.uk back in 2003, and never once have I received an email notification of impending subscription renewal from them. For all other online subscriptions I always receive advance warning and am advised to ensure that my banking/credit card and other personal details are up-to date.

Being yearly, my ancestry subscription has always been the one I forget, but, fortunately, I have always had sufficient funds to cover even though on a tight budget (more luck than judgement).

Ultimately, I know it is my responsibility to keep track of regular outgoings, and have now set my google calendar to send an advance email warning.

One thing though, I reckon ancestry employ dubious tactics - my previous credit card expired Dec 2010, but I notice that ancestry have "nudged" my online details to show that my card expires in Dec 2011, where in-fact my new card is valid from Dec 2010 and expires in 2013. :eek: Hmm - Do you think this may be worth reporting to watchdog?

Edit: I would post a link to a image to support what I am trying to convey, but, being a newb, I am not permitted to do this

MrsWast

fade2gray wrote: »

I now this is an old thread now, but I'd just like to air my views on the above quoted.

I first subscribed to ancestry.co.uk back in 2003, and never once have I received an email notification of impending subscription renewal from them. For all other online subscriptions I always receive advance warning and am advised to ensure that my banking/credit card and other personal details are up-to date.

Being yearly, my ancestry subscription has always been the one I forget, but, fortunately, I have always had sufficient funds to cover even though on a tight budget (more luck than judgement).

Ultimately, I know it is my responsibility to keep track of regular outgoings, and have now set my google calendar to send an advance email warning.

One thing though, I reckon ancestry employ dubious tactics - my previous credit card expired Dec 2010, but I notice that ancestry have "nudged" my online details to show that my card expires in Dec 2011, where in-fact my new card is valid from Dec 2010 and expires in 2013.

i am also a noob - but had this very experience last week. i had an email from ancestry.co.uk in late may saying my payment details had expired and if i wanted to renew i should contact them to advise new details. as i had no intention of 'reneweing' following a free trial in 2008 that i subsequently cancelled, i did not take any action.

on 19 june, £83.40 was deducted from my credit card account. i rang and expressed my displeasure and should be getting a refund. however, i have emailed ancestry to ask them to justify:

1. how they could take a payment from an account they had advised me was no longer available to them

2. how they could deduct money anyway given that i had not advised them of payment details

i have requested a full refund plus compensation for the interest i have been charged while waiting 5-10 working days for them to make the refund. i have advised them that, should this be not be forthcoming, i will be seeking legal advice. i have all the correspondence detailing my cancellation following my 'free trial' all that time ago, so this could get interesting....

Mupette

when you sign up, it does make it very clear that unless you cancel it will continue, how difficult is it for people to write dates on calenders, i do it because i forget as i have MS, but really not difficult

2sides2everystory

Edit: I have just realised this is a very old thread!

Anyway, if you go over an ancestry.co.uk trial period inadvertently, have you tried calling them? I have been very pleasantly surprised by them twice about late cancelling these free trials.

I went two or three weeks over and then realised. I called the number more on the offchance than on any major mission to get my money back, and they were most pleasant about it and offered to refund even before I asked. I think it was an American or Canadian call centre I was patched through to.

Blow me if I didn't do it again by a few days (a few months later with a different email address). This time I was able to cancel it in the MyAccount section online.

In both cases £107.40 returns were processed.

As I said, I was very pleasantly surprised by this company and I formed the distinct impression that they wanted to be known as long term family friendly and that they knew that we'd probably be back sometime ... they'll wait ... and meantime they don't mind if we spread the word.

I appreciate that others may have had a different reaction and I rarely have a good word to say about large companies, but maybe this time I (twice) got lucky!

showmethemoneyuk

Ive just been searching around about the best ways to research into your family history, and found this post-does anyone know what the best genealogy websites are, offering a similar service? I imagine some may share information with ancestry, which is what makes that the supposed number one website. I would not sign up, or ever trust any company that does not, in the very least, contact me to note that a payment will be taken very soon from my bank account, especially for an annual subscription-regardless of whether the information was in any small print or not. From the amount of money this company makes, Im sure it would not be too difficult for them to create an automated service to do so.

Some argue about the price of a full account, some state its because it was expensive or very difficult to obtain the information they now have in the first place, with others considering that since the information is now there to share via a few clicks of a mouse, and that they have likely cleared what they have had to pay many times over by now, it should be far less. Regardless of price, I would not trust signing up, even for the trial, when I read about all the companies accidental subscription charges on here. Ill use the local library ..some allow free use of ancestry, so thats probably the best way to go about it-if its a worthwhile website content wise